Secretary of State Elaine Marshall will extend Gov. Beverly Perdue's ban on gifts to the Secretary of State's office.

Perdue's gift ban, which applied to employees in her administration, came after revelations that Verizon Business plied state employees with dinners and gifts. The company has a $51.5 million, no-bid contract with the state.

Marshall said in a statement Monday that her office already bans gifts in certain circumstances. She praised Perdue's order, which is a sweeping ban on gifts to employees.

"The people of North Carolina deserve to know that their state government is operating in unison to reject gifts from those seeking to do business with the state, as well as gifts that could even create any appearance of conflict of interest."

Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger says that state employees will remain ethical if the consequence for breaches is a loss of their pensions.

Berger, an Eden Republican, said in a news release Friday that he intends to introduce a bill that would do just that. Berger issued his release the day after Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, banned gifts to state employees in her administration.

Berger said public corruption is a consequence of the fact that Democrats have dominated state politics for years. Berger, who is helping lead a Republican charge to win legislative seats, took pains not to offend state employees with his pitch.

"I plan to introduce legislation requiring any state employee convicted of taking illegal gifts or other corruption related charges to forfeit their pension, just like elected officials.  99.9 percent of state employees are working hard for the people of this state and they do not deserve to have their reputations ruined by the few who are not doing the right thing," Berger said.

The State Auditor's Office has had a long-standing ban on gifts to auditors.

The policy extends to all employees of the office and precludes all but a few narrow exceptions for nominal, token items that could arise out of a speech or service on a board. Gov. Beverly Perdue's executive order bans gifts to all state employees in her administration

The ban specifically precludes gifts from anyone associated with agencies or entities that are audited by the office, said Dennis Patterson, a spokesman for Auditor Beth Wood. Even a small gift to an auditor would be enough to have an audit re-assigned, he said.

"Our folks are pretty tight on it," Patterson said. "The whole idea of being an auditor is you are a totally independent third party...and I can tell you they take it very seriously."

The office also extends the state's ethics law to senior managers who might not have otherwise been covered by the law. Patterson said the office is unlikely to change its policy in light of Perdue's order.

Gov. Beverly Perdue today toughened a policy for keeping state government e-mail that was left by former Gov. Mike Easley.

Perdue's order strips away some wiggle room state employees may have had to delete e-mail messages that they determined were not related to public business. Now employees must keep all messages for 24 hours so they can be archived every day. Employees can delete spam messages they receive. Easley's order, which Perdue rescinded, allowed employees to decide which messages were related to public business.

"Only when the doors of government are open wide, and the sun truly shines in, can we be sure that our government by the people is working for the people," Perdue said in a news release.

Perdue's order is similar to an order signed by Easley in the waning days of his administration. Several news organizations, including The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer had sued Easley over e-mail retention.

Perdue also signed an order requiring the Department of Commerce to report the names of consultants involved in economic development projects that benefit from state incentive programs.

Update: Perdue's e-mail order also creates a searchable backup system, a spokeswoman said. Most messages would be kept for 10 years. 

Gov. Beverly Perdue has issued 11 executive orders so far:

1. Campaign endowment. Creates a task force to develop a public endowment for gubernatorial campaigns. Jan. 12.

2. Transportation board. Reforms the board of transportation by improving its ethics policy and requiring more professional approval. Jan. 12.

3. Accountability. Orders review of state government programs. Jan. 12.

4. N.C. OpenBook. Creates online database of state contracts and grants. Jan. 12.

5. Budget commission. Creates a panel to recommend ways to cut the state budget. Jan. 12.

6. Cut spending. Orders state to reduce spending and cut off capital projects in order to keep budget in the black. Jan. 13.

7. State of emergency. Declares state of emergency over winter storm. Jan. 20.

8. End emergency. Ends state of emergency. Jan. 21.

9. EMS Rules. Makes permanent rules about emergency medical and trauma services. March 3.

10. State health council. Requires members to disclose conflicts of interest. March 3.

11. Furloughs. Cuts teacher pay by a half percent for 2008 fiscal year in exchange for 10 hours of leave. April 28.

State contracts are now available online.

Gov. Beverly Perdue announced today the launch of N.C. OpenBook, a Web site that provides a database of 2,500 state contracts and 5,000 grants.

"We’re going to let the sun shine in on state contracts," Perdue said in a statement.

The Office of State Budget and Management is working with state agencies to streamline paperwork so that all contracts will be available by the end of the year.

Perdue also pledged to feature information about state agency performance measures and planning on the site eventually.

Modeled after state and federal transparency efforts, N.C. Open Book was created by an executive order on Perdue's first day, fulfilling a campaign promise.

The project will cost an estimated $900,000.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan backs federally funded stem-cell research.

The Greensboro Democrat said today that she supports President Obama's executive order ending restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research put in place under the Bush administration.

She noted that her mother had a massive stroke in her 50s that led to her death years later.

"While the stroke itself was traumatic enough for her, and my family, watching her struggle through the final years of her life is something that has stuck with me all these years later," Hagan said in a statement.

She said she hopes that stem-cell research will help with diseases such as Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, strokes and Alzheimer's.

"I applaud this decision and look forward to seeing what kind of treatments North Carolina's research and biotech industries will pursue in this area," she said.

Gov. Beverly Perdue is instructing state agencies to cut spending.

After signing an executive order on the budget Tuesday, Perdue announced today the specifics steps she will ask state officials to take to balance the budget: 

* Cut spending by seven percent. This is an additional two percent above the cuts already ordered by Gov. Mike Easley.

* Stop any purchases of goods or services unless specifically approved by a department head. This does not apply to equipment or materials needed for classrooms.

* Suspend travel and training except for public safety, public health, job requirements, economic development  or emergency situations. Exceptions must be approved by department heads.

* Put on hold any pay-as-you-go appropriations for capital improvement and repair and renovation projects.

* Do not fill any vacant positions unless a prior commitment has been made. Department heads can approve filling vacancies as an "extraordinary exception."

"The global recession has forced our state to make tough financial decisions," Perdue said in a statement.

Gov. Beverly Perdue is getting ready to cut the budget.

Late Tuesday night, Perdue issued an executive order directing budget officials give her cost-cutting options by the end of the week.

State government faces a shortfall of as much as $3 billion, or more than 10 percent of last year's $21.5 million budget.

Among the possible measures: Canceling state purchases and using money other than the general fund to finance daily operations.

Perdue did not say what steps she will take or how much she hopes to save, but the executive order gives her legal authority to act when her budget advisers make recommendations later this week.

"As Governor, I have a constitutional requirement to balance North Carolina's budget, and I intend to do so responsibly," she said in a statement. (N&O)

Gov. Beverly Perdue promised to create a campaign finance endowment.

In a page on her campaign Web site, Perdue pledged to lead a statewide effort to raise money for a $50 million endowment for public financing of gubernatorial elections.

"Such an endowment should be able to generate between $4-5 million annually in income or $15-20 million over each four-year period between gubernatorial campaigns," the section notes.

The endowment would be managed by a bipartisan group of 12 individuals appointed by the top legislative leaders of both major parties.

To receive the money, candidates would have to pledge they would not run negative ads, would address major issues and attend a series of debates and would not spend any other money on their campaign.

Perdue has already fulfilled part of this promise, signing an executive order today establishing a task force to push for the endowment.

She's already said Tom Lambeth will lead the task force.